Jun 30 Mark Twain & The Infamous N-Word [re-post]

Truth be told, I don’t think this is necessarily a 100% bad idea.
Indeed, I toyed with the idea of publishing a re-edited version of Huckleberry Finn myself but never got around to it because I’m a lazy sod.

I would have selected a different word than Alan Gribben’s choice of “slave”, however.

My word of choice to replace the infamous n-bomb would have been “[African]”.

Not “African” but ‘[African]”. And always in brackets and italicized or presented in a different font from the rest of the text.

It’s foolish to pretend the word is not there in the original text. And has been pointed out, “slave” is a job description, “[African]” is a condition of birth.

My idea would have been to add a short preface to the work (much like this post) explaining why the substitution was being made in that particular fashion.

Calling Jim a slave, while accurate, also robs the story of its full impact. Jim is not deemed a lesser member of society because he is a slave, he is a slave because he is deemed a lesser member of society.

To get that point across, I wanted to create a speedbump with “[African]”.

I wanted new readers to understand when & where the original had been changed.

I wanted them to be aware of how often & how casually & how brutally the word was used.

No, it was not Twain’s intent to demean former slaves by dropping the n-bomb; quite the contrary. The beauty of Huckleberry Finn is that Huck overcomes his own culture, his own upbringing to do the right thing.

Even if he can’t articulate it in a way socially acceptable then or now.

No, no, no, the other other f-word. You know, the one you can use only when describing this scene in Frankenstein:

Now, what’s amusing about this is that "Money F** Nothing" is being sung from the POV a blue collar worker who doesn't understand / appreciate the work that goes into being a successful musician/pop star.

It's Knopfler & Sting giving the raspberry to a segment of their audience.

What is also interesting is that the chorus includes "Get your money for nothing / And your chicks for free" which uses a somewhat dismissive/patronizing term for females and implies they're all whores to one degree or another, but nobody in Canada seems to have taken umbrage over that.